In a new paper (“From Compact Plasma Particle Sources to Advanced Accelerators with Modeling at Exascale”), a collaboration between LLNL, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron, and CEA-Universite Paris-Saclay explores computational modeling in particle accelerator research. The team’s research was supported by the Exascale Computing Project and includes the Beam, Plasma & Accelerator Simulation Toolkit (BLAST) of scientific open source codes and applications. The abstract follows:

Developing complex, reliable advanced accelerators requires a coordinated, extensible, and comprehensive approach in modeling, from source to the end of beam lifetime. We present highlights in Exascale Computing to scale accelerator modeling software to the requirements set for contemporary science drivers. In particular, we present the first laser-plasma modeling on an exaflop supercomputer using the US DOE Exascale Computing Project WarpX. Leveraging developments for Exascale, the new DOE SCIDAC-5 Consortium for Advanced Modeling of Particle Accelerators (CAMPA) will advance numerical algorithms and accelerate community modeling codes in a cohesive manner: from beam source, over energy boost, transport, injection, storage, to application or interaction. Such start-to-end modeling will enable the exploration of hybrid accelerators, with conventional and advanced elements, as the next step for advanced accelerator modeling. Following open community standards, we seed an open ecosystem of codes that can be readily combined with each other and machine learning frameworks. These will cover ultrafast to ultraprecise modeling for future hybrid accelerator design, even enabling virtual test stands and twins of accelerators that can be used in operations.